This invention relates to web printing apparatus, for example, the type used in the manufacture of business forms. Such forms are, for the most part, printed from paper or light card stock web material, and may be left as a continuous web, sheeted, or folded, collected either single or collated in multiples, with lines of perforation between the successive forms to assist in separating them at the time of their use.
Equipment for manufacturing such forms is similar in some ways to other web printing presses, however, it includes additional devices for such operations as perforating, imprinting, numbering, partial or complete perforation either transversely or longitudinally of the web, slitting and either rewinding or zig-zag folding of the finished material. There may be more than one printing couple or tower, usually for offset printing. The printing may be on one or both sides of the web in one or more colors, and the various numbering, perforating and punching operations must be registered with the printed image or images on the web. Depending upon the size or complexity of the forms, they may be printed in any number of different layouts, from a single image to many multiples of an image for each printing impression.
The press operator, in setting up the press for a particular job, is confronted with a large number of setups and adjustments, which as is well known in the art, take substantial time in order to achieve proper registration of all the various operations required to complete the printing of a form. For example, the proper stock must be selected, and a roll of it mounted in the unwind apparatus of the press. This roll must be positioned to locate the web to follow a predetermined path best for alignment with the following operations in the press. The plate and blanket cylinders of the press must be aligned in order to locate the printed image(s) on the web, both laterally and longitudinally.
Longitudinal adjustment of course involves rotational adjustment of the plate and/or blanket cylinders. Then, depending on the needs of the job and the complexity of the form, the operator must set up further apparatus such as an imprinter, where a rubber or plastic type plate is mounted on a cylinder to add an imprint in a specified area of each form image; numbering units which must be set up and adjusted to print successively different numbers on one or more areas of the forms; and the various devices used for punching and perforating the web. In general, a line hole perforator is provided for at least one, and usually both, edges of each form. They must be mounted to produce the line holes in proper registration with the top and bottom of the printed image. Ordinarily a vertical perforator is provided to form perforations inboard of the line holes from the edge of the form, file hole punches may be added and registered to the image where needed, and cross perforators, or partial perforators may be set up and used, depending upon the job.
For instance, if the particular job on the press is to become part of a multi-sheet form, the cross perforations may not be added at this time, the web may be rewound, and one or more webs may be run with the same or similar printing in following runs, then the two or more rolls resulting from these runs may be moved to a collator and combined, probably along with interleaved carbon paper. The cross perforating operation is performed on the collator along with gluing or other operations to attach the several webs. In such case, zig-zag folding may also be accomplished at the end of the collator, or the combined webs can even be severed into individual forms and stacked for loading into boxes, etc.
While some efforts have been made in the printing portion of business forms presses to adopt image registration systems known in the printing press art, no effort has been made to provide a total registration system for the many different and optionally used mechanisms of a business forms press. Typical setup or makeready operations may require substantial time, in some cases time will be in excess of the time required to complete a run. For example, these machines can operate in excess of 1,000 feet per minute. Assuming a form of twelve inches in length, that speed equals 1,000 forms per minute, and thus a run of 20,000 forms requires only about twenty minutes. On the other hand, the makeready operation for such a job can require at least thirty to forty-five minutes, in many cases substantially more.
In addition, there is a trend toward combination of traditionally commercial printing work with business forms printing. Printing houses are seeking equipment which can do high quality multi-color work along with the flexibility to manufacture a wide variety of forms, inserts or attachments to forms, etc. Increasing business use of computerized forms for billing (including a return envelope in the form), advertising, and related functions, has also added to the complexity of the forms, and demand for greater quantities of forms.
In view of the foregoing, there is need to simplify the makeready operations for business forms presses, and without sacrificing in any way the necessary accuracy required to register the various operations of the press. Such simplification can result not only in a saving of makeready time, but also can result in substantial savings of material, since quicker, more accurate makeready minimizes the amount of waste required to run the web through the press and achieve final registration adjustments.